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> a south asia SAGAR research journal volume XXV • 2017 SPONSORED BY THE SOUTH ASIA INSTITUTE, THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN SAGAR2016-2017 CHIEF EDITORS Charlotte Giles, Dept, of Asian Studies, UT-Austin Paromita Pain, School of Journalism, UT-Austin Saleha Parveiz, Dept, of Asian Studies, UT-Austin EDITORIAL COLLECTIVE MEMBERS >4i. Sundas Amer, Dept, of Asian Studies, UT-Austin Daniel Dillon, Dept, of Asian Studies, UT-Austin Deepa Fadnis, School of Journalism, UT-Austin Andrea Guitierrez, Dept, of Asian Studies, UT-Austin Kathleen Longwaters, Dept, of Asian Studies, UT-Austin Zeltzyn Rubi Sanchez Lozoya, Dept, of Asian Studies, UT-Austin Kathryn North, Dept, of Asian Studies, UT-Austin Joshua Orme, LBJ School of Public Affairs and Dept, of Asian Studies, UT-Austin Harshvardhan Siddarthan, Dept, of Asian Studies, UT-Austin Siddarth Sridhar, Dept, of Asian Studies, UT-Austin Ramna Waila, Radio-Film-Televsion, UT-Austin WEB EDITOR Charlotte Giles & Paromita Pain PRINT/WEB DESIGNER Dana Johnson EDITORIAL ADVISORS Kamran Asdar Ali, Director, UT South Asia Institute; Associate Professor, Dept, of Anthropology, UT-Austin Rachel S. Meyer, Assistant Director, UT South Asia Institute EDITORIAL BOARD Richard Barnett, Associate Professor, Dept, of History, University of Virginia Eric Lewis Beverley, Assistant Professor, Dept, of History, SUNY Stonybrook Purnima Bose, Associate Professor, Dept, of English, Indiana University-Bloomington Laura Brueck, Associate Professor, Asian Languages & Cultures Dept., Northwestern University Indrani Chatterjee, Dept, of History, UT-Austin Lalitha Gopalan, Associate Professor, Dept, of Radio-TV-Film, UT-Austin Sumit Guha, Dept, of History, UT-Austin Kathryn Hansen, Professor Emerita, Dept, of Asian Studies, UT-Austin Barbara Harlow, Professor, Dept, of English, UT-Austin Heather Hindman, Assistant Professor, Dept, of Anthropology, UT-Austin Syed Akbar Hyder, Associate Professor, Dept, of Asian Studies, UT-Austin Shanti Kumar, Associate Professor, Dept, of Radio-Television-Film, UT-Austin Janice Leoshko, Associate Professor, Dept, of Art and Art History, UT-Austin W. Roger Louis, Professor, Dept, of History, UT-Austin Dennis B. McGilvray, Professor, Dept, of Anthropology, University of Colorado, Boulder Gail Minault, Professor, Dept, of History, UT-Austin Raza Mir, Professor, College of Business, William Paterson University Afsar Mohammad, Lecturer, Dept, of Asian Studies, UT-Austin A. Azfar Moin, Assistant Professor, Dept, of Religious Studies, UT-Austin Nauman Naqvi, Assistant Professor, School of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Habib University, Pakistan Paula Newberg, Clinical Professor, Dept, of Government, UT-Austin Stephen Phillips, Professor, Dept, of Philosophy, UT-Austin A. Sean Pue, Assistant Professor of Hindi Language & South Asian Literature and Culture, Michigan State University Martha Selby, Professor, Dept, of Asian Studies, UT-Austin Snehal Shingavi, Assistant Professor, Dept, of English, Ut-Austin Rupert Snell, Professor, Dept, of Asian Studies, UT-Austin R.V.S. Sundaram, Visiting Professor, South Asia Studies, University of Pennsylvania Cynthia Talbot, Associate Professor, Dept, of History, UT-Austin Sanjeev Uprety, Professor, Central Department of English, Tribhuvan University, Nepal Kamala Visweswaran, Associate Professor, Dept, of Anthropology, UT-Austin a south asia research journal volume XXV • 2017 A CRITICAL AND THEORETICAL EXAMINATION OF THE CONCEPT OF SPACE Editors’Note DABALI: The Open-air Stages of Nepal Carol C. Davis IDENTIFYING THE MOBILITY CHALLENGES OF WOMEN OF LOW SOCIO ECONOMIC STATUS IN BENGALURU, INDIA Abby Seitz and Peter Flachsbart SYMBOLICALLY STRONG, FUNCTIONALLY IMPOTENT: The Gujral Committee Report and Urdu in Post-Independence India Isaac McQuisition THE SPACING OF PILGRIMAGE: Two Journeys to Sri Pada in Sinhala Verse Alexander McKinley EXAMINING THE BANGLADESHI CUT PIECE IN MEDIA ANTHROPOLOGY: An Interview with Lotte Hoek Contributors EDITORS' NOTE It has been a few years since Sagar made its shift to becoming a peer-reviewed journal. It has grown since then. Today Sagar gets sub missions from all parts of the world; from graduate students as well as those more established in academia. We celebrate this diversity of voices and the scholarship. This year, we opted for a themed edition of Sagar, leaving us with 14 wonderful submissions from all over the globe, encompassing a variety of disciplines and countries in South Asia. This issue contains five pieces, produced by faculty and graduate scholars and translators, each selected after rigorous peer review. Scholarship’s attention to space and place is long-standing and largely in part due to the diverse field of geography. Certain scholars such as Yi-Fu Tuan, Nigel Thrift, Michel de Certeau, Doreen Massey, Gillian Rose, and many others have led the way to enhancing our critical understanding of space as more thanjust given or understood ideas, but rather as concepts that require nuanced explication. Studies in different places and contexts through various methodologies and disciplines contribute to this on-going conversation about space. This issue is dedicated to these exchanges of ideas. Through the concept of the unique open-air stages, or dabalis, Carol C. Davis discusses how Nepali theater brings together groups of people through a range of fes tivals and performances. Abby Seitz and Peter Flachsbart document how gender, socioeconomic status, and mobility intersect in the Indian city of Begaluru. The article by Isaac McQuisition draws attention to the under-researched Gujral Committee Report on Urdu, and how the space and symbolic capital that Urdu is able to command changes with this report. Alexander McKinley also translates two Samanala poems from Sinhalese, describing the space and route of a Lankan pilgrimage. Finally, Daniel Dillon and Rubi Sanchez interview Lotte Hoek, media anthropologist working on Bangladeshi movies, and bring to us a dis-. cussion about the production of filmic space and images, particularly the “cut-piece”. Our sincerest thanks go to the South Asia Institute, particularly, former Director Kamran Asdar Ali, Asssisance Director Rachel S. Mey er, and accountant Soheila Omrani for their never-ending support of , Sagar. We also thank former Chief Editors Saif Shahin and Jeff Wilson for their assistance, designer Dana Johnson for his work over the years on print and digital volumes, the student members of our Editorial Col lective, and the faculty members of our Editorial Board. Sincerely, Charlotte Giles, Paromita Pain, and Saleha Parvaiz Chief Editors, Sagar: A South Asia Research Journal I 1 y ,-T / DAB A LI: The Open-air Stages of Nepal Caroi C. Davis FrankLin and Marshall College Lancaster. Pennsylvania f DABALI: THE OPEN-AIR STAGES OF NEPAL ABSTRACT Throughout Nepal, theatrical expression embodies and communicates shared memories and experiences as it articulates the hopes, fears, practices and dreams of the people for whom it is performed Presented more in the open air than in proscenium theatres, in places of worship, on the streets, and on the raised open-air stages known as dabali. Nepal performs its identity in public and inclusive ways. On open-air stages around the country theatrical events have long included literary drama, spiritual drama, folk drama, and activist drama Certain theatrical forms educate audiences about their past or guide them toward the future: other forms confer essential blessings or protection on specific groups: yet other forms raise awareness to stimulate engagement with society In all its manifestations. Nepali theatre fosters collectivity and galvanizes communities toward social, political, or religious bonding This ar ticle highlights the centrality of the dabali through a range of essential open- oir performative activities in Nepal, including those for religious, educational, and consciousness raising purposes It describes oral and visual forms on the brink of disappearing and relates them to culture and cultural memory It ex plores the wealth of Nepal's theatrical expression on dabali even in the midst of extreme poverty, and laments the passing of vanishing spaces and forms. Photographs of performances shed light on important historical and indig enous icons before they disappear in the rush to modernize or are washed away in the monsoon of materialism that is flooding Nepal n his seminal book, An Empty Spsce, Peter Brook writes: I can take an empty space and call it a bare stage (Brook, 7). In Nepal, where theatre is an expression of collective cultural memory, the I‘empty space’ has long been at the center of community because of the vital services it renders. The name for Nepal’s empty space is dabali, the “Nepali form of medieval Nepal’s Newari dabula or dabulL It de veloped as dabali in modern Newari” (Tamot), and means platform of stone” (Amatya, 21). The actual presence of performance platforms in Nepal pre-dates that word, and historical evidence (Subedi, 2006, 25) puts raised dabali as far back as the fifth century C.E., when the kings of the Licchavi dynasty ruled the Kathmandu valley (Shaha, 31). I- For more on the theme of cultural memory in Nepali theatre, see Davis, 2003. « FIGURE 1. A RAISED DABALI IN PATAN DURBAR SQUARE. 1 MARCH 2012 5 CAROL C DAVIS Most formal dabali are located near medi eval palaces and tem ples, or adjacent to crossroads, (Figure 1) although less formal dabali may be found at the base of hills that provide natural amphitheaters, on ru ral agricultural and Fig 2. Newar women